ME'SHELL, NORAH, SHERYL, MOS DEF RAISE HOPE FOR CONGO

Some charity compilations get a lot of attention, and some don't.  I actually keep up on this stuff, and still, I nearly missed Raise Hope For Congo. According to the organization's website, "Our insatiable demand for electronic products is fueling the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the deadliest conflict since World War II and the most dangerous place in the world for women and girls. There are few other conflicts in the world where the link between our consumer appetites and mass human suffering is so direct. The armed groups perpetuating the violence generate an estimated $183 million each year by trading in illicit minerals, which end up in our electronics, from cell phones to laptops.  Since women are the primary targets in this war, proceeds from this compilation will fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo’s women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo." I knew about conflict diamonds, but not conflict electronics.  I hope to learn more about this, so it will inform my choices as a consumer, and I hope you look into it too.

As for the album, it comes out June 22.  I downloaded two songs: a Norah Jones called "World Of Trouble," that was originally on the soundtrack to a film I never heard of, 2007's The Hottest State. The other was MeShell NdegeOcello's cover of U2's "40," which is lovely. There are also tracks from Sheryl Crow and Mos Def on the album.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: MASSIVE ATTACK, GORILLAZ, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. We talk about - surprise! - music. I missed last week due to my vacation, but now I'm back! The last time I was on the show, some folks didn't like the Johnny Cash album that I brought, American VI: Ain't No Grave. I stand behind my choice, it's a great album! But hopefully people will like my choices better this week.

First off is Massive Attack, who just released Heligoland, their first real album in seven years. There's a few guests on the album, including Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio and Damon Albarn. There are definitely some cool songs. The "problem" with Massive Attack is like the "problem" with The Violent Femmes. They made a debut album that was so classic (1991's Blue Lines) that it was nearly impossible to follow up. It is such an influencial album. They've done good stuff since then, but Blue Lines towers above all of it. That said, there are definitely some good songs on the new album. The one with Hope, "Paradise Circus," is my favorite.

Gorillaz is fun and a great idea. Their new album, Plastic Beach, is a concept albums and kind of sinks under its own weight. Still there are some cool moments, especially the title track, which reunites Clash bandmates Mick Jones and Paul Simonon for the first time since Combat Rock. Paul played with Gorillas frontman Damon Albarn in The Good, The Bad and The Queen. "Stylo," which features Mos Def and Bobby Womack, is the first single and probably the best song on the album.

LCD Soundsystem has a new album coming out, This Is Happening. I don't flip out over LCD the way some people do, but I like some LCD Soundsystem songs. I don't think it's really a band, it's really this guy James Murphy. "Drunk Girls" is a party jam from the album, and is a cool party jam (albeit one David Bowie could probably sue for, since it sounds so much like "Boys Keep Swinging"). On the other hand, "Oh You (Christmas Blues)," from the Ben Stiller film, Greenberg, recalls solo John Lennon at his most angst ridden.

I wrote about singer Daniel Merriweather a while back. I think he has a great voice, and while I hear that the release of his new album Love & War has been troubled, I love the duet with Adele, "Water and a Flame." More than that: the iTunes bonus track: a cover of The White Stripes classic "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told)." Larry won't like this one!

Finally, Big Audio Dynamite, Mick Jones' post-Clash band. Their debut, 1985's This Is Big Audio Dynamite, is being reissued as a 2 CD set April 27. A lot of their music sounds a bit quaint and dated, since dance music production is so different now from what it sounded like 25 years ago. But it was really trailblazing the way Mick combined rock, hip-hop, reggae and dance music. It was sort of what he started doing with "This Is Radio Clash." Definitely worth a listen.

MOS DEF AND TALIB KWELI ON FALLON

I don't watch late night television too much, but Jimmy Fallon is killing it on the music front. The Christopher Cross thing was funny, but Mos Def and Talib Kweli's version of "History" (backed by The Roots, of course) was awesome. (The song is from Mos' The Eccstatic.) Backing vocals provided by two ladies from a band I don't really get, The Dirty Projectors. I wanted to embed the video, but NBC's site is only letting me embed the entire episode, not the song, which is too bad, because it was a great performance.

Update: here's a version I found on YouTube, hopefully NBC doesn't take it down.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ

No real theme this week, just a bunch of albums that I thought might be of interest. Regina Spektor's Far (if Larry doesn't like Tori Amos, I'm not sure how he'll feel about Regina, but I'm a bigger Tori fan anyway). Todd Snider's The Excitement Plan, which features a cougariffic duet with Loretta Lynn, and a song about Doc Ellis' legendary no-hitter on acid. Wilco 's Wilco (The Album), which, inevitably, includes "Wilco (The Song.)" They may be too clever for their own good, but it's a pretty good song. They are one of the bands that the indie folk adore that I also like. Mos Def's The Ecstatic, which may be his best album since Black On Both Sides (although I feel like most of his albums don't live up to his potential). Street Sweeper Social Club's debut album, which I like a lot. And Pete Yorn's latest, Back & Fourth, which was produced by indie-darling Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes. I like the songs that I've heard so far, although I don't think he's ever lived up to the promise of Music For The Morning After.

MOS DEF'S THE ECSTATIC

Another pleasant surprise: the songs I've heard from Mos Def's The Ecstatic have been great. I felt like some of his recent stuff has been tainted by how much of a pain in the ass it has been for him to work with major labels. But I loved "Life In Marvelous Times" which came out last year, and The Ecstatic's "Casa Bey," "Auditorium" (featuring The Ruler) and "History" (with his Black Star mate Talib Kweli) are all great. Black Star recently played NYC, I'm sorry I missed it. I saw Mos last summer on the Rock The Bells tour, and it was all right, but when Kweli joined him onstage, it took things to the "next level" as they say. This summer, Kweli is on the tour with his other group, Reflection Eternal (with DJ Hi-Tek), hopefully Mos will join them.

CADILLAC RECORDS: THUMBS UP

I'm sure there's lots that people can complain about when watching Cadillac Records, the film about Chess Records. For one, Phil Chess, brother of Leonard Chess - they ran the label together - wasn't in the film at all. For another, neither was Bo Diddley, surely one of the most important artists on the label, and of the rock era. I guess both omissions may have been to streamline the story: having just one Chess brother made it more focused, and Chuck Berry represented the rock era overtaking blues, so maybe the producers felt that Bo would have been one character too many. (Or maybe Bo, who once told me that he never made a dime off of record sales, didn't allow the film to use his likeness - and watching this film, you can see why he didn't get paid, or didn't feel that he got paid fairly).

But I loved the film. I thought Jeffrey Wright, an amazing actor, was great as Muddy, Eamonn Walker was incredible as Howlin' Wolf, Mos Def kind of stole his scenes as Chuck Berry and Beyonce was way better than I expected her to be as Etta James. I'd love to see Walker as Howlin' Wolf in his own film, and ditto for Mos Def as Chuck. Or even do like an HBO series of spin-offs. There was a lot I didn't know that I learned watching the film: I knew there was a Muddy/Wolf rivalry, but you really see how it developed in the film. I also didn't know how crazy Little Walter was (and Columbus Short played that role extremely well). Great movie that seems to be in danger of being lost, despite Beyonce's star power. That would be a shame, more people need to see this film: and hopefully it turns people on to the incredible music that Chess brought to the world: the music of Muddy, Wolf, Chuck, Etta, Little Walter, and also Bo, Walter and John Lee Hooker (also not in the film), among many others.

CADILLAC RECORDS TELLS THE CHESS RECORDS STORY

I'm sort of looking forward to seeing Cadillac Records. I'm having a hard time with Beyonce being cast as Etta James. I think her Dreamgirls castmate Jennifer Hudson would have been a better choice, but I'll give it a chance. I'm looking forward to seeing the great Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters and Mos Def as Chuck Berry.

The soundtrack is kind of legit sounding, although taken on its own... well, lets say I can't really imagine anyone reaching for it in five years. That's only because the original versions of the Etta, Berry and Muddy songs are so great, what's the point? I'm sure it works for the movie. But I just listened to Beyonce's "At Last" followed by Etta's. I don't like to be negative, but I think Etta's version is all you need. Chuck Berry's songs are perfection, but I have to say it's funny hearing Mos Def sing them. Anyone in a rock band (Mos fronts a band called Black Jack Johnson) should cover a Chuck Berry song at least once. Jeffrey Wright does a decent job with Muddy's songs, but again, those songs are perfect the way they were. The album ends with Nas ' collaboration with his dad Olu Dara, "Bridging The Gap," which links hip-hop and blues. Hopefully this film will do that, and will turn on young kids to Chess: not just Etta, Chuck and Muddy, but also Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, and the other great artists on the label. To me, Chess is the most important record label ever. Yes, more important than Sun.

VH1'S HIP-HOP HONORS

I was glad to see one of my favorite groups of all time, de la soul, get their due at the Hip-Hop Honors. It took Q-Tip, Estelle (John Legend's protegee), Cee-Lo, Public Enemy with Mos Def and EPMD to pay tribute to them. The only problem was that each segment was too short (no pun intended).  It's just too bad that PE and Mos Def's collab was like, one minute long. 

And they need to honor EPMD next year! They are way more influential than some other artists who have been honored. But it was also great to see Cypress Hill and Slick Rick get honored.  I wasn't as big of a fan of Naughty By Nature or Too $hort. 

Anyway, great show, I remember working at the first Hip-Hop Honors, and there was some initial skepticism about Video Hits 1 doing a hip-hop awards show. But it was awesome, and they've done a great job on all the subsequent ones. (Although tough to beat the original lineup, which included PE, Run-D.M.C. and KRS-One). 

"REAL HIP-HOP" WAS INDEED IN THE MUTHAF@#$IN' HOUSE: ROCK THE BELLS 2008

The Rock The Bells 2008 tour was a great time, but before I talk about it, I gotta thank my friend Angela Yee from Shade 45 for getting me in, and my friend Su for getting me a ticket! 

The behind the scenes stuff was a mess, and the waiting time between artists was way too long, but why dwell on that. It was a great show. I got there a few hours after it started, but as I got to my seats, dead prez were wrapping up their set with their classic song, "Hip-Hop." They are group who definitely have something to say: I wish I liked their music more. Speaking of having something to say, the next artist was Immortal Technique. He's a little bit to the left of me, but I liked his tracks and definitely appreciated that he has something to say. I may not even agree with everything he says, I don't know, but I am at least interested. 

Then de la soul came on. de la was the first hip-hop group I ever saw perform: it was at The Ritz in New York City back in like '89 or maybe '90, they were opening for Living Colour. Back then they came off a bit goofy, but I don't feel bad saying that: a few years ago, I got to interview Pos, Dave and Mase and when I mentioned that show they were all like "Oh no!" But they've toured so extensively since then, they've got their thing down, and they are one of the tightest live hip-hop acts that you'll see.  It was tough for them to squeeze their set into 35 minutes or whatever, but they did good. Q-Tip joined them for a bit of "Buddy," and Dres from Black Sheep joined them, yes, for "The Choice Is Yours." Say what you want about "one-hit wonders," it must feel good to have thousands of people chanting along with your big hit from 15 years ago. On the other hand, it was clearly a bitch to have to follow that song up. 

Raekwon The Chef and Ghostface Killa were next. Here's my problem: like quite a few hip-hop crews, these guys let everyone they know come on stage with them. That might be cool at a club (I'd argue that it isn't cool even in a club). But at a huge venue, it doesn't work. I was so far away, I couldn't really see who was who. Most of the people on stage didn't even have mics. So why did they need to be there? But the performance was mostly tight. I like Ghost's new song "Be Easy." But the old stuff like "Ice Cream" and "Incarcerated Scarfaces" of course got everyone out of their seats. 

Then Mos Def. For my money, he's one of the most talented cats out there, but I sometimes think he needs some focus. The guy is a great lyricist, has awesome delivery, can sing soulfully, but also do rock and reggae, and has lots of presence. He's always got so much going on: hip-hop, his rock band, his big band, spoken word, acting, etc. I think he's had some great cameos, but other than the Black Star album and his solo debut Black On Both Sides. And that was kind of the deal with the beginning of his set: there were these weird scenery videos going on, and the performance wasn't too gripping. Then Talib Kweli hit the stage. Next level, how ya doin'? I know those guys aren't too anxious to do another Black Star album for fear that it won't live up to the first one, but I don't know, if they really focus, maybe they can do it. "Respiration" was great. Too bad Common wasn't there (it would have been cool if he'd joined de la as well). 

Considering how much Method Man and Redman seem to enjoy blowing trees, it's surprising how tight they were. Meth kept yelling the same "The same amount of energy you give us, we'll give back to you!" thing he yelled at last year's festival, when he played with The Wu-Tang Clan. He seemed to have more fun with Red, though, and the crowd seemed more into them. They're plugging Blackout 2, the sequel to their first album, Blackout, from 1999. But they hardly played any songs from that album; too bad, it was really underrated. Other than "Da Rockwilder" (which they did play) I liked "Mi Casa," "Cereal Killer" and "1,2,1,2." Ghostface joined them, which was cool. And Erick Sermon and Parish Smith (a.k.a. EPMD) also joined them, which was cooler. They did "You Gots To Chill." Slick Rick also popped on stage for a second or two to recite the hook to "La Di Da Di." 

Nas is kind of having his moment right now: his untitled album is at #1 despite controversy over its original title. I was surprised to see that he was backed by a band, along with DJ Green Lantern. (GL calls himself "The Evil Genius," which - no disrespect - makes no sense. Why doesn't he call himself Sinestro if he's evil? That's some comic book stuff.) They opened with a new song "Slave/Master" which was pretty powerful, and then went into the title track from 2006's Hip-Hop Is Dead (a great song to play live with a band). Then he kicked into a bunch of songs off of his classic debut Illmatic, followed by other his from his career (including "One Mic" and "Hate Me Now." And Jay-Z joined him for "Black Republicans." Predictably, people went nuts for the former President of Def Jam. I'm not a fan, but I had to admit, it was pretty cool. A lot of people weren't feeling the band thing. I thought it worked at some points, and others it didn't, but it was overall a good set. 

Next, Q-Tip hit the stage with DJ Scratch and did stuff from his upcoming album (but not the cool song "Work It Out," some Tribe stuff, and his earlier solo hits like "Vivrant Thing" and "Breathe And Stop." He had a band but no drummer, which was pretty weird. It didn't totally work for me as much as I wanted it to. Still, I believe Tip may have a few classic albums in him, his mind is in the right place. 

It's probably almost too easy for Tip to play with A Tribe Called Quest again. Still, they are so awesome together, it would be a shame for them not to do it anymore. I hope that he can balance his solo career with Tribe - even if it is just Tribe concerts and not new music. They were awesome, and when Busta Rhymes joined them for "Scenario," it just tore the place up. 

Great night, and thanks to Shade 45/Flow TV personality Angela Yee for getting me through the gate and my pal and former intern Su for hooking me up with a ticket.  I took some pictures, but they were from far away, I gotta look at them and decide if I want to post them. 

"SEVEN NIGHTS TO ROCK"

A week from today, my lovely wife (we just celebrated our six year wedding anniversary) leaves for a week and a half trip to Africa. She goes nearly every summer. Last summer I went with her. This summer I'm not (her trip involved a class, much reading and a term paper that needed to be completed before the trip).

Anyway, at some point I noticed that starting the night she leaves, there are seven shows in a row that I want to go to. Wouldn't it be fun to go to all of them? I'm calling it "Seven Nights To Rock," after an old song that Springsteen sometimes covers. Of course, I'll be blogging about it. Other than just writing about the shows, though, I'm also going to be writing about what it costs in ticket prices, gas, tolls, parking and food. Plus, what's it like to be a guy who is pushing 40 (or, leaving his 30s), holding down a job, and going out for seven nights?

My old company, VH1, may be interested in me blogging about this on their site. I've been trying to push it to other sites as well, but time is running out. So, I may blog about it here, or I may blog elsewhere (but I will link to it from here). Here's the schedule: 7/26 I'm starting out with a movie that "rocks," Neil Young's Crosby Stills Nash & Young Deja Vu documentary. My original plan for 7/26 was to see Yes, but they cancelled their summer tour. However, if I do it for VH1, I'll be going to the Warped Tour. I went to the Warped Tour in its first year, its first few actually, but I haven't been for a long time. I'm not that interested in many of this year's bands. I know that Pennywise is playing, so is Against Me! (a band I would probably be into if I were in high school now) and the Horrorpops. 7/27: Rock The Bells (with A Tribe Called Quest, de la soul, Nas, Mos Def, Method Man & Redman, Raekwon & Ghostface and more). 7/28: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. 7/29: The Foo Fighters. 7/30: Aimee Mann. 7/31: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (yes, again). 8/1: Loretta Lynn. But if I do it for VH1, I'll go to see Apples In Stereo instead. Should be fun and interesting, if tiring. I'm sure I'll be talking about it on the OutQ In The Morning With Larry Flick Show.

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST TO HEADLINE ROCK THE BELLS

Last year's Rock The Bells Festival featured the reunion of Rage Against The Machine, as well as Public Enemy and The Wu-Tang Clan, which is a pretty tough to beat bill. But they've got a great lineup this year as well: A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Mos Def, Rakim, de la soul, Method Man & Redman and Ghostface & Raekwon are all on the bill. Unlike last year, lots of these guys will have new music out (Q-Tip, Nas, Mos, Meth/Red and Raekwon). I thought the organizers did a great job last year, so I'm really looking forward to this festival.

MOS DEF TO PLAY CHUCK BERRY

The Hollywood Reporter has been reporting (and it's been repeated all over the web) that Mos Def has been cast as Chuck Berry in the upcoming film about Chess Records. I think that's a great bit of casting. I got to interview Mos once, and he loves all kinds of music, including early rock and roll, which he celebrates in "Rock and Roll," off of his 1999 classic solo debut, Black On Both Sides. In it, he sang "Elvis Presley ain't got no soul/Chuck Berry is rock and roll/You may dig on The Rolling Stones/but they ain't come up with that shit on they own." Beyonce is playing Etta James (a bit of casting I'm less down with). But anything that turns younger people on to the awesome music from Chess Records is cool with me. If Mos and Beyonce bring more people to the party, then great. In another cool bit of casting, Jeffrey Wright is playing Muddy Waters. Mos and Wright co-starred in the awesome Broadway production Top Dog/Underdog. I'm looking forward to seeing this movie, big time.